American Jews 'disloyal' to their own people and Israel if they vote Democratic: Trump

President Donald Trump doubled down Wednesday on his controversial assertion that Jewish Americans who vote for a Democrat are "very, very disloyal to Israel and the Jewish people," continuing his effort to make support for Israel a political wedge issue ahead of the 2020 election.

“In my opinion, if you vote for a Democrat, you're being very disloyal to Israel and you're being very disloyal to Jewish people," Trump told reporters before departing the White House en route to Kentucky.

Seventy-nine percent of Jewish voters cast a ballot for a Democrat in the midterms last year, according to exit poll data. In the 2016 presidential election, 72% of Jews voted for Trump's Democratic rival, Hillary Clinton.

An analysis of ABC News data in 2018 found that 41% of Jews identified themselves as liberals, more than any other religious group.

"Let’s be clear: What @POTUS said was #antiSemitic," the CEO of the Anti-Defamation League, Jonathan Greenblatt, wrote on Twitter, about Trump's initial remark. "The charge of disloyalty or dual loyalty has been used against Jews for centuries. Almost a year after the #Pittsburgh shooting, as #antiSemitism continues to rise, it’s bewildering that we still need to have this conversation."

Alex Brandon/AP

President Donald Trump speaks with reporters before departing on Marine One on the South Lawn of the White House, Wednesday, Aug. 21, 2019, in Washington.

Asked Wednesday by a reporter if his comments about “disloyalty” were anti-Semitic, Trump replied that they were not.

"When President Trump uses a trope that has been used against the Jewish people for centuries with dire consequences, he is encouraging—wittingly or unwittingly—anti-Semites throughout the country and the world," Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer, D-N.Y., said in a statement Wednesday. "Enough."

Democratic 2020 candidates blasted his initial comments as offensive and anti-Semitic. Former Vice President Joe Biden said Trump's remark was "inexcusable" and "beneath the office" of the president, while Sen. Cory Booker, D-N.J., contrasted Jewish teachings about love and kindness with what he called Trump's efforts "to try to divide us against each other, to demean and degrade us."

"I am a proud Jewish person and I have no concerns about voting Democratic," Sen. Bernie Sanders, D-Vt., tweeted. "And in fact, I intend to vote for a Jewish man to become the next president of the United States."